Bassu shares his experience of mentoring and what it helped him to achieve last year.
A new year always brings with it the ‘out with the old and in with the new’ sort of thinking as well the feeling that we can start afresh. And in January last year, this is exactly how I was feeling. I wanted 2011 to be a year where I experienced more. I got in touch with Back Up’s mentoring manager and I was matched up with peer mentors Paul and Youcef who helped me shape my 2011 into a really important year.
I have had a T2 injury level since I was three but it wasn’t until I started receiving mentoring support that I realised I wasn’t as independent as I thought I was.
Before mentoring I wasn’t confident in travelling around by tube, but Paul was tremendously encouraging and talked me through his experiences and before I knew it, I decided to challenge myself. I really wanted to be able to tell Paul the following week when he called, that I had done it!
Over three months, I had regular phone calls with my mentors and I began to develop a ‘can do’ attitude. I went on to do the City Challenge course in Edinburgh, use the train for the first time on my own, attend the Back Up Ball, and got myself a new wheelchair. Mentoring definitely gave me more resolve to try new things.
Whether you’ve been injured recently, or like me, you’ve had a spinal cord injury for a long time, mentoring can really help give you more direction, experience new things, or simply learn from the experience of others.
Are you interested in receiving support from a mentor?
Get in touch with Kyra on; 020 8875 6728 or email.